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In 1985, Her Eminence Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo Rinpoche, who was then known as Alyce Zeoli, opened the World Prayer Center for Tibetan Buddhist study in Poolesville, Maryland. She received her honorable title of Jetsunma, a female Buddha, in 1987 when she became the first Western woman to be enthroned with the title. The World Prayer Center became Kunzang Odsal Palyul Changcub Choling (KPC), a name bestowed by 11th throneholder of the Tibetan Palyul lineage, His Holiness Penor Rinpoche, in 1988. Her Eminence Jetsunma continues to grant spiritual guidance at the temple following the Tibetan Buddhist practices of Vajrayana Buddhism. [1]

Tibetan Buddhism has been taught and practiced in the United States since the early 20th century, but its roots remain with Buddha Shakyamuni (“the awakened one of the Shakya clan”), who lived approximately 2,600 years ago in the modern Bihar region of India. As a young prince known as Siddhartha, he snuck out of the palace and visited local villages where he witnessed, for the first time, people experiencing aging, illness and death. He then saw a man who had renounced the world to wander the forests in search of spiritual insight. These "four sights" are what inspired the prince to flee his palatial life and take up the lifestyle of a spiritual renunciate. [2]

After many years of meditating, learning and investigating, Siddhartha realized the true nature of the mind and therein found the source of freedom from all forms of suffering—a state known as enlightenment. For the remainder of his life, he taught others the lessons of his experience. These teachings came to be known as the Buddha Dharma and are practiced around the world today.

Buddhism first came to Tibet from India in the eighth century and formed what is known today as the Nyingma, or “the ancient” school. Tibetan Buddhism consists of four major traditions, of which the Nyingma is the oldest. [3] Tibetan Buddhism rapidly spread to the West after the Chinese occupation of Tibet beginning in 1950. The occupation and subsequent uprising—met with brutal suppression tactics by the Chinese (thousands of Tibetans were killed in the immediate aftermath)—sent many, including Tibet’s spiritual and then-political leader His Holiness Tenzin Gyatso, the fourteenth Dalai Lama, into exile. [4]

The surge of Buddhist practices in America was largely influenced by the 1950s post-war movement known as the Beat Generation. This movement protested society’s conventional “square-ness” and advocated for political and social free thinking. [5] Jack Kerouac and Allen Ginsberg were among the many influential artists whose works inspired Americans to explore Eastern culture and Zen Buddhism. In the 1960s and 1970s, Sharon Salzberg, Robert Thurman and many other American Buddhists helped to expand American’s awareness even further by contextualizing Zen, Tibetan, Theravada and other Buddhist traditions and popularizing the practice of Buddhist meditation. [6] As a result, Buddhist centers of all traditions opened throughout the United States, encouraging the adoption of Buddhist spiritual practices.

Buddha’s first teaching is still considered the foundation of Buddhism and is commonly referred to as the Four Noble Truths. These four teachings are: suffering exists in life; suffering has a cause; there is an end to suffering; and there are steps one can follow to end suffering. By following these teachings, individuals can reach the unique goal of Buddhism: to free oneself and, ultimately, all sentient beings from all forms of suffering and thereby achieve the state known as Buddhahood, nirvana or enlightenment. Tibetan Buddhism is in part distinguished from other Buddhist traditions by its emphasis on bodhicitta, or the supreme altruistic intention to achieve enlightenment through a motivation to help all beings. These teachings carry the same message that Buddha Shakyamuni taught centuries ago, based on his own experience of enlightenment. [7]

The KPC temple is one of four created by Her Eminence Jetsunma. The physical temple is located within an antebellum-style mansion with an adjacent 65-acre Peace Park that includes public walking trails, meditation gardens and stupas. [8] When visiting the Peace Park, guests are encouraged to walk in a clockwise direction around the stupas or sit in front of one while praying and meditating. [9]

[1] “Her Eminence Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo,” Kunzang Palyul Choling, https://www.tara.org/jetsunmas-ahkon-lhamo/.
[2] John Powers, Introduction to Tibetan Buddhism (Boulder: Snow Lion Publications, 2007).
[3] Ngawang Zangpo, Guru Rinpoche, His Life and Times (Boulder: Snow Lion Publications, 2002).
[4] William Meyers, Robert Thurman, and Mihael G. Burbank, Man of Peace (New York: Tibet House US, 2016).
[5] The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica, “Beat Movement,” Britannica, https://www.britannica.com/art/Beat-movement.
[6] Maia Duerr, “How Buddhism Came to the West,” The Buddha: A Film by David Grubin, PBS, copyright 2009–2010, https://www.pbs.org/thebuddha/blog/2010/mar/17/how-buddhism-came-west-maia-duerr/ ; Livia Gershon, “When Buddhism Came to America,” JSTOR Daily, January 7, 2019, https://daily.jstor.org/when-buddhism-came-to-america/.
[7] Powers, Introduction to Tibetan Buddhism.
[8] “Maryland,” Kunzang Palyul Choling, https://www.tara.org/maryland/.
[9] “How to Use a Stupa,” Kunzang Palyul Choling, https://www.tara.org/stupas/how-to-use-a-stupa/.